Since the terrible shootings at Sandy Hook school in Newtown, the National Rifle Association — the leading gun advocacy group in the US — has been silent. In fact, it even took down its Facebook page. Now the organization is talking again ahead of a Friday press conference it plans. That includes its return to Facebook and sharing with other social media services.

The NRA’s drop from Facebook was perhaps best covered by TechCrunch earlier this week, which documented how the page was hidden from public view. The NRA kept its Twitter and Google+ pages up, perhaps because it’s harder to temporarily hide those and easier to restrict external postings to them. However it didn’t share any information through them.

The page is dominated by a header highlighting this week’s press conference. The first post on the page since the shootings says that the absence has been due to the organization wanting to allow time for mourning, prayer and investigation before commenting. It also links to an NRA statement about the upcoming press conference and how the group wants to offer “meaningful contributions” to help prevent similar shootings.

The National Rifle Association of America is made up of four million moms and dads, sons and daughters – and we were shocked, saddened and heartbroken by the news of the horrific and senseless murders in Newtown.

Out of respect for the families, and as a matter of common decency, we have given time for mourning, prayer and a full investigation of the facts before commenting. The NRA is prepared to offer meaningful contributions to help make sure this never happens again.

The NRA is planning to hold a major news conference in the Washington, DC area on Friday, December 21.